Citing contract violation, bicycle-sharing project firm issued show-cause notice

A senior official said that the firm has neither paid the penalty of Rs 39,000 nor it has paid the annual licence fee of Rs 12 lakh

Only Two Bicycles Stationed at the Sector 16 GMSCH docking station in Chandigarh. Photo by Sushant Nepta *** Local Caption *** Only Two Bicycles Stationed at the Sector 16 GMSCH docking station in Chandigarh. Photo by Sushant Nepta

Listen to this article

00:00

1x 1.5x 1.8x

The firm — Smart Bike Mobility — managing the bicycle-sharing project in the city has been show-caused by the Chandigarh Smart City Limited (CSCL)?asking why its tender may not be cancelled as it failed to fulfil the terms and conditions mentioned in the contract. The Nagpur-based firm has been given three days to reply to the notice, failing which action will be taken against the firm.

A senior official said that the firm has neither paid the penalty of Rs 39,000 nor it has paid the annual licence fee of Rs 12 lakh. It was also stated that the firm has not extended its bank guarantee submitted to CSCL and has not submitted its financial status to the Smart City Limited.

According to a study in January done by the Smart City Limited, it was found that female rides form just 17.09 per cent of the total bike rides in Chandigarh under public bicycle-sharing since August 2021 when the first phase of this project was launched. About 29 lakh kilometres have been covered using bicycles in Chandigarh with 657 tons of carbon emission saved in the city.

Of the total bike rides, rides taken up by males form about 82.7 per cent of them as per an analytical study of the rides carried out by the Chandigarh Smart City Limited.

As far as the age-wise rides are concerned, the majority of the bike rides, that is about 63.23 per cent, have been taken up by those aged between 20 and 30 and 18.28 per cent of rides have been taken up by youngsters less than 20 years.

The bicycles can be rented for Rs 10 for half an hour and members can rent it for Rs 5. One can register as a member for a year by making a one-time payment of Rs 500.

1,200 rides on average daily

Story continues below this ad

According to the data with the Chandigarh Smart City Limited, 1,500 rides are taken in a day on average. On weekdays, there are about 1,200 rides while on weekends there are 1,500 rides.

Most popular docking station

The Sukhna Lake is among the most popular docking stations. This docking station records the highest — 50 to 60 — rides in a day on average.

The peak hours for taking the cycle rides have been found to be 5 am to 7 am — a time which significantly witnesses less motorised traffic.

7 lakh rides booked

As many as seven lakh rides have been booked as per the department and there have been more than two lakh registered users.

Story continues below this ad

As a pilot project, 225 bicycles were introduced across 25 docking stations in December 2020. As part of the soft launch and phase 1, a total of 1,250 cycles were introduced across 155 docking stations in August 2021, followed by phase 2 wherein cycles totalled up to 2,500 and were introduced across a total of 310 docking stations in February 2022.

Fourth phase to be launched by July

The third phase was launched in January wherein 3,750 cycles across 465 docking stations were stationed. Phase IV is expected to be launched by July 30. With the launch of the phase IV, the total number of bicycles will go up to 5,000 cycles and 617 docking stations by July 30.

The firm launched 1,250 bicycles each in Phase 1 in August 2021 and Phase 2 in?February 2022.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram